On Elections

Week beginning 1 May 2005

Most of us will be glad to have reached the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year, if only to lay to rest the incessant media coverage of the election. It is a significant piece of news, of course, and has the potential for much good, or much harm. But at least we can look forward to headlines other than attacks on personalities and arguments about policies.

I was asked recently to use the word 'election' as the basis for a series of studies. As it happened, after I'd completed the series, it was not wanted. But the discipline was good, and I re-discovered just how much the Bible has to say about elections and choices.

For example, fundamental to any biblical theology is the doctrine of divine election, expressed so beautifully by the apostle Peter when he described the believers to whom he wrote as 'elect exiles ... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ'.

Paul uses the same language when he says of God that 'he chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world ... predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will'.

And in the magisterial letter to the Romans he argues that the reason the church exists in the world today, buoyant amid the waves of atheism, secularism and pluralism, is precisely because 'there is a remnant, chosen by grace'.

The word 'election' is used in the New Testament to speak of the sovereign, ultimate choice God made of his people before the foundation of the world, what Robert Reymond describes as 'eternal salvific decision making on God's part'.

The evangelical world has always been a bit sceptical on the doctrine of divine election. How can the Gospel be freely preached and Christ offered indiscriminately to all if the root of salvation is in God's choice of a determined number of people? To which I respond by saying, How can it be preached thus otherwise? In the grip of sin we would never choose God. But in electing love he has chosen his people.

Who they are we do not know; what we do know is that were it not the case, all of us would perish in our sin. As it is, the offer of the Gospel comes to us precisely because of God's sovereign plan, in which the foundation of salvation is laid by God's decree.

Yet we are not fatalists; we make choices too. Some of them have momentous consequences. Others affect only ourselves. Some decisions we regret. Other choices we do not. Sometimes we agonise over which decision to make, then look back five years later and realise it could not have been otherwise.

So, in the great issues to which the Gospel addresses itself, we need to make our own choices. That is graphically illustrated in the Bible by the prophet Elijah, face-to-face with, and outnumbered dramatically by, the prophets of Baal. He is in a minority, but he is not in the right for that reason.

No; he is in the right because he has Truth on his side, and truth is always the object of faith. So he presses the case home on the people: 'How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him'.

We have been swamped under party manifestos, discussions on the legality of wars far away, debates on the integrity of key political figures, and an array of arguments and counter-arguments with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Yet for us, one cross on a paper in a booth will mark the end of that process. We either vote, or we abstain. Either way, we make our choice -- our election -- and it is irreversible. We will have made our commitment, and our die will be cast.

In the issues of life and death, there is no shortage of candidates vying for our commitment, holding out promises of enlightenment, of fulfilment, of renewal. But the candidate the world rejected long ago is the only one who can say 'I am the Truth'.

The integrity of Jesus is never in doubt. The veracity of his claims cannot be denied. The validity of his promises is beyond question. And amid all the conflicting voices that clamour for our attention, his remains powerful enough to raise the dead.

I can think of no more fitting text for this election day than the ancient words of Joshua: 'choose this day whom you will serve'. That is what we are about, in the temporal business of choosing a government, one which will rule on the mandate of the people, and which can be toppled just as easily.

But it is also what the Bible insists we do in the spiritual and eternal business of our lives: 'choose whom you will serve'. Joshua himself went on to say: 'as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord'.

When the dust of the general election has settled, and the people have spoken and made their choice, we will get on with the business of raising our children, running our communities and paying our taxes. But the choice with which the Gospel confronts us is much more fundamental, much more far-reaching, and much more consequential than our choice of government. Our whole eternity depends on it.

So the voice of Joshua has much to say to us today. 'Choose this day whom YOU will serve.' A cross still makes all the difference in the world.

? Iain D. Campbell 2005